


Love Don't Cost A Thing (Mark Lee Get Your Head Out of Your Ass)

by rydellon



Series: i like whenever we touch you know i can't get enough [3]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Established Relationship, Homelessness, M/M, No Dialogue, but i needed to get it out, inspired by love dont cost a thing by jlo, markyong reigns, sorry about this i wrote it in under an hour
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-31
Updated: 2019-05-31
Packaged: 2020-03-30 20:10:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19034794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rydellon/pseuds/rydellon
Summary: Mark Lee wants to provide the best for his boyfriend (but in doing that he doesn't think of himself.)





	Love Don't Cost A Thing (Mark Lee Get Your Head Out of Your Ass)

Mark loves his boyfriend.

 

Taeyong is probably the epitome of “perfect boy”, a people pleaser, a kindergarten teacher, and probably everything Mark has ever wanted in his life both personality and body wise.

 

He hadn’t told Mark but Mark knew that Taeyong had graduated top of his class in university, and had blazed through teacher’s college, along with all of the required first aid courses, all with his (at the time) less-than-stellar comprehension of the english language.

 

And then there’s Mark himself, a struggling college student who Taeyong met at a small indie record store in downtown Vancouver while looking for Nirvana albums. He wouldn’t let Taeyong ever hear him say it, but honestly he deserved way better than Mark.

 

They had only been dating about 8 months, but that was enough for Mark to make a complete judgement of Taeyong’s (frankly, amazing) character and determine that Mark would never be the perfect match for the Korean man.

 

That, and Mark couldn’t even spoil him like he wanted to.

 

Mark’s parents had kicked him out at 17, leaving him and his RESP to fund him through the first few years of UBC, working towards a degree that meant nothing to him with nothing to his name. He had started working 3 jobs to keep himself afloat, surviving primarily on food that he could cook easily in the one room apartment he had rented for his first year of university, travelling on his bike to campus and back.

 

That was, until the money that he had been scooping into his apartment had needed to go towards school and books and he had had to start sleeping in the record store when he could or on the streets or in shelters.

 

That’s when Taeyong had found him. A second year uni student with a degree he didn’t want meeting someone so beautiful that it caused him to not be able to speak for a few seconds when he first saw him.

 

When they had started dating Mark had payed for their second date, pulling out his debit card and tapping it. When he checked the balance later that day he had a solid $6.50 left on his card. After that, whenever Taeyong offered to pay, Mark leaped at the chance.

 

He felt really bad, Taeyong buying dinner for their dates, Taeyong buying him flowers, Taeyong buying him knick-knacks he had seen at a flea market that he thought Mark might like. It was horrible, a crushing feeling weighing him down every single time Taeyong brought him something.

 

So, Mark started doing it too.

 

He bought Taeyong his favourite Timmies meal (double double and sour cream glazed doughnut, a bold choice). He bought Taeyong bouquets of flowers (ambrosia, honeysuckle, red tulips, thornless violet roses). He bought Taeyong a bracelet, from Links of London. He saw it in the mall and knew he had to get it.

 

And there went his food budget for the week, the month, the next three months.

 

But, Mark rationalized it as ok. He couldn’t pay to sleep in the shelter anymore, he couldn’t pay to eat anymore, but he was still working and he could pay Taeyong back for the things he had bought for Mark, put more love into their relationship, and that was ok. That made it all ok.

 

And then, around a month later, Taeyong had asked to go over to Mark’s place, reasoning that they either always were at Taeyong’s or out, that he wanted to go to Mark’s for once.

 

Mark ran away from that conversation really fast.

 

Little did he know, Taeyong had followed him “home”. Home for Mark, at that moment, was an alleyway between a coffee shop and an antiques shop.

 

Mark was curled up on an old cardboard box (that had originally housed coffee beans. It smelt like Mark’s parent’s house had in the mornings. He didn’t know if that made him feel better or worse) behind a brick ledge, bawling his eyes out about how his funds were down too low after spending money on his phone that month, needing to pay for his data plan so that he could keep working on things on the go on his laptop.

 

He also might have been crying about thinking about breaking up with Taeyong, but you didn’t hear that one from him.

 

Taeyong had cooed, pulling a frozen Mark into his arms on the floor of that alleyway, Mark trying to weakly push him away before he realized it was futile and he would have to submit whether he liked it or not.

 

That night Mark moved in with Taeyong, spending his first night in a long time in a bed.

 

The next day, after both of them had woken up, and after Taeyong had consumed an ocean’s worth of coffee he had made Mark sit down and explain the situation he had been hiding from Taeyong for so long. Mark tearfully spilt the whole story. Taeyong held his hand the whole time.

 

Taeyong made the executive decision that Mark would be living with him very, very quickly after he heard the full story, Mark complaining that he didn’t want to be a burden.

 

Taeyong turned on him very fast, stating that it would be payback for everything Mark had done for him. Mark could see the bracelet he had bought hanging off of Taeyong’s wrist.

 

Mark loves his boyfriend. Considerate, kind by nature, and beautiful to top it all off, Taeyong is the whole package.

 

Sometimes Mark can’t do everything he wants to do for his boyfriend, whether due to lack of funds or school requirements, but Taeyong constantly reassured him that when Mark had a stable job in the future, he could repay Taeyong all he wanted.

 

For now though, Mark was content. He had bumped his grades up and dropped one of his jobs to spend more time on his life and boyfriend. And, sure, he wasn’t straight A’s I-am-literally-amazing-in-every-way Taeyong who graduated top of his class, but he also wasn’t struggling college student who Taeyong met at a small indie record store in downtown Vancouver while looking for Nirvana albums Mark anymore, and he thinks that’s the best improvement he could have made at this current time.

 

He’d just have to work towards bigger goals in the future, aiming for his dreams with Taeyong at his side (of course).

 

It was Taeyong who dragged him out of the mess he was, and he would make sure it would be Taeyong who was there to see him make it to the top as well.

**Author's Note:**

> this is SHIT sorry hee hee
> 
> [ **the song** ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kGvlESGvbs)
> 
>  
> 
> [ **my cc** ](https://curiouscat.me/ry_dellon)
> 
>  
> 
> [ **my twt** ](https://twitter.com/sunjaes)


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